“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

We might often feel like our homes have personalities of their own. The alignment of the furniture, the wallpapers, the way our house looks when we're looking at it from the outside, the way the windows feel like they're the eyes of the house, beckoning us to come back inside. We can often associate this "soul" of the house with the reason why home truly feels like home, a comforting nest that welcomes us back to its arms after a long day outside. Homes do definitely have souls, in a figurative sense, so reading this book does a good job at dealing with that ever so familiar aspect of home life. However, the soul of the home described here is a sinister one. A home that is selfish and violent and self indulgent, seeking to entrap the people it sets its eyes on, forever binding them inside its haunted walls. Hill House is a den of evil and chaos, and one feels the heavy atmosphere the instant they set foot inside its premises.




In this story, we follow Dr. Montague and a group of people he invites to come with him to this house, in order to observe the supernatural phenomena taking place within its walls and write a research paper about it. Our main lens is shown through the eyes of Eleanor, one of the people invited, who, with an obvious troubled past, proves to be of a delicate psychological composition, and the perfect victim for this evil house. Through Eleanor, we meet the other temporary residents of the house, the feisty and attention seeking Theodora and the smooth and charming Luke, who is the future owner of this abode. The prose here was very enjoyable to read, and Shirley Jackson succeeded in hooking me to this world through her very well written character work and the atmospheric ambience she succeeds bestowing upon Hill House. One can feel themselves getting lost in its endless mazes of rooms in never-ending hallways and feel the suffocating darkness of the house. The sense of impending danger is always there, just outside the door that leads to another room. The main tactic used to terrify the reader is the fear of the unknown, since we don't actually see the ghosts causing these disturbances, but we most definitely feel and hear their presence. All this darkness is balanced by entertaining character dialogue and drama, and the visit of Mrs. Montague, the doctor's wife, and her hilariously uptight and arrogant attitude added a nice dose of comedic relief to the story.




“Fear," the doctor said, "is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway.”

Where this felt short with me however, was the author's choice to keep all of the mysteries of Hill House unsolved. We are simply spectators of weird events taking place, and though I enjoyed being in the visitor's shoes, not knowing what was going on and being lost and confused as to the true origin of these phenomena, I would have liked to get more closure on some of the house's history, and maybe seeing some of the ghosts and their actual motives. The horror aspects of this book were almost strictly atmospheric, with no actual violence taking place for most of the time, and while this definitely is a literary art in its own right, I would have personally preferred a bit more horror, more so than simple atmospheric dread. I would have wanted that atmospheric dread to slowly build up into a terrifying climax where actual horrifying atrocities take place, since that is my personal expectation when reading a horror book. I wish we knew more about Eleanor's odd past as well, and the reason why Mrs. Dudley constantly repeats the same speech daily to everyone except Mrs. Montague. In my opinion, there is a delicate balance between keeping some open ended mysteries to add to the intrigue of the story, and having those mysteries feel like lazy writing, leaving the reader unsatisfied.


“I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.”

Despite having expected more, I do believe this book stands on its own two feet as a classic story of a haunted house. Do not expect to have answers, and let Shirley Jackson guide you into the world she crafted. I recommend reading this on a rainy day, since that could really help with the immersion. It was a good read, and I do recommend it to fans of classic spooky tales.

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“Journeys end in lovers meeting; I have spent an all but sleepless night, I have told lies and made a fool of myself, and the very air tastes like wine. I have been frightened half out of my foolish wits, but I have somehow earned this joy; I have been waiting for it for so long.”